Clause 12
Welfare Reform Bill
1:45 pm
Jim Murphy (Minister of State (Work), Department for Work and Pensions; East Renfrewshire, Labour)
I shall try to make my response relatively brief, on the basis that, in spirit, this is a probing amendment.
On numerous occasions we have talked about the entitlement to a support group being on the basis of a revised personal capability assessment of 15 points, matching one of 46 descriptors. I shall go on to some of the specifics.
This is another example of a speech excellently drafted by others, which my noble Friend Lord Hunt of Kings Heath will have an opportunity to rehearse for the first time when a Lords Committee considers the Bill. That may be the best thing to do with some of our prepared speeches, to enable me to respond to the specific points that have been raised.
On sanctions and how we will roll out work-focused interviews, I am trying to take some of the lessons from work-focused interviews and the relationship between the personal adviser and the customer, and the relationship between personal adviser, customer and sanctions regime. Many hon. Members will be aware that pilot schemes are under way in seven parts of the UK, exploring the relationship between conditionality and the sanctions regime among existing incapacity benefit customers. We will learn of the best experiences from that process before bringing that knowledge forward into the draft regulations and guidance on how we implement work-related activity.
I do not wish to stray on to discussions that we have had on other amendments, so I shall try to keep my comments narrow. The hon. Member for Daventry referred to the explanatory notes. The draft regulations state, very specifically:
“Claimants cannot be forced to undertake a particular activity.”
That means that we will not take the power to force a customer to undertake a specific action. However, the customer should undertake activity that takes them closer to the labour market over an agreed period, between work-focused interviews. Without going back to the debate over clause 11(2) to (6), in normal circumstances interviews would be expected to take place in a cycle of once in every four weeks. Inside that cycle, a customer would be expected to undertake some work-related activity that takes them closer to the labour market in that period.